"Anita Hill is a boy"

In this article Orenstein argues that our school curriculum are male dominant and that more needs to be done to make classrooms more gender fair. She looks at a classroom where the teacher is trying hard to incorporated more women into the curriculum and to make boys more comfortable with learning about women while at the same time trying to build confidence in girls.

"Individually, teachers find that calling on students equitability, or simply waiting for a moment rather than recognizing the first child who raises his hand, encourages girls to participate more readily in class."

I can relate to this because growing up I was one of those girls. If a boy raised his hand first, I would keep mine down. If a girl raised her hand first, then I would raise mine if I had something to say. I know that if I really wanted to, no one was stopping me from raising my hand after the boy did, but I didn't want to compete with a boy. The fact that I was uncomfortable competing with a boy tells me now that I couldn't have been very confident that I was that boy's equal.

"As the girls talk, I recall what a teacher at Weston once told me, that "boys perceive equality as a loss." Apparently, girls are uneasy with it, too. Even these girls, whose parents have placed them in this class ill part because of Ms. Logan's sensitivity to gender issues, have already become used to taking up less space, to feeling less worthy of attention than boys"

This whole issue makes me mad. I think it's because I get impatient with some men and their pride as it is, to think that seeing equality as a loss is what some of them think (even subconsciously) makes me frustrated. There's a lot of denial, or at least ignorance, of gender inequality. Any guy I've brought the issue up with have wanted nothing to do with it, or would just deny everything that I mentioned. I don't think that some men feel women have the right to complain. Even though women are treated as sexual objects in the media, and men enjoy it. Even though rape is still a huge problem, as is domestic violence. Women can vote and women can work, so they feel that women should feel content. But women are still not equal.

I think that girls are taught to behave. Or, at least, are taught to learn how to be out of the way. Almost as if the old idea that women should be seen but not heard hasn't faded away completely. I think that's why girls have trouble speaking up in class disscussions, why they take up less space, and why they feel comfortable not competing for attention. It makes me want to tell women to start changing their behavior. To try and be more outgoing. The problem is that no one tells girls that they're being passive. It's not realized.

"It is important to be explicit withnthese reassurances right away. Feminist teaching is not about allowing anwin/lose situation to develop hetween boys and girls."

I love this quote because I feel as if that's what's going on these days. Men feel like they're being attacked, like if they admit that there are gender biases than they'll lose and have to admit that they're wrong. That's not the way that it should be thought about though. This doesn't have to be a boys vs. girls situation. Honestly, I don't think that gender has to be as big of a factor in our society as it is. It shouldn't matter if a student is a boy or a girl. Boys shouldn't be disciplined more often than girls for the same behavior. Girls shouldn't look into a classroom and see not one female representation. If a girl can wear a skirt to school, then a boy should be able to wear one. The way that both girls and boys are treated unfairly aggravate me so much!

"Luis tells me that he chose to take this class because he was interested in the topic. "But I don't tell my friends," he says. "If I told them I was interested in women's history, they'd call me a fag. So I just take it and don't' talk about it."

This is the most important quote of all. This is the root of the problem. Boys are put under a huge pressure to be masculine. Things are put into categories. Masculine, Questionable, and Feminine for them. Football= Masculine. Enjoying cooking= Questionable. Enjoying women's studies= Feminine.

Not only does it limit men and boys in such a way that they're forced to cover up the things that they enjoy in fear of being singled out, they are also forced to see certain issues and things as not their problem. Some men don't want to learn how to cook because it's not their problem. It's not their problem because it is a woman's problem. It's a woman's problem because it's questionable for a man to like to cook.

It reminds me of a class that I took last semester, Critical Issues in Contemporary Africa. I was asked by people, on more than one occasion, why I was in that class. "You're not black" they'd say "why did you take that class?" And it felt like an accusation. It felt like I was being asked to defend myself. As if Africans only matter to black people. As though I had no business taking a class on Africa because it's not MY problem.

That's how Luis felt. Except I didn't expect to be questioned about my class choice and he was totally expecting that. So he didn't talk about it because he didn't want to have to defend his choice. He didn't want to have to explain why he was taking that class even though it wasn't HIS problem.

It ties in well to the things we've read about race and about how white people need to make racism their problem too. The hard part is always having to defend yourself.